"Okay, everyone!" the teacher rapped on his desk with a ruler, "We have a new student. His name is-" the student put his hand up signaling the teacher to stop.

"I'll take it from here." He swept a glance over the class, "I'm from London, and I was born here in Japan. My mom's from London and my dad's from here. I've lived in London for almost my whole life, about 15 years" the whole classes' eyes widened in awe. Pleased with the effect, he grinned and continued, "I used to go to private school and I know German and Spanish" (I have no idea if they really teach that in private schools. I'm a strictly public school gal!).

"Really!" Momiji asked excitedly, practically bouncing in his seat. "Schließlich! Jemand, den ich mit in meiner eigenen Sprache sprechen kann!" (Finally! Someone I can talk to in my own language!).

"Ich bin ein wenig rostiges obwohl" the new student replied. (I'm a little rusty though)

Momiji positively glowed.

The teacher cleared his throat trying to get everyone's attention again, "Very impressive, but you haven't told us your name yet"

"Oh" he said carelessly while scanning the aisles and looking at the empty desks, "I don't use my whole name, so you can call me Hiroko"

Everybody started whispering; What kind of name is that? Unusual, but so is he.

"Well nice to meet you Hiroko, it's a pleasure to have you" the teacher said, "Now" he gave a back-to-business ahem "Go find an empty desk and we'll start our lesson" and the teacher turned to the board. "Now today's lesson…"

Hiroko began looking up and down aisles, when finally, his eyes were rooted in one spot. Turning his head around a bit, he called out"Hey! Teacher!"

"Mr. Yoshioka young man" the teacher said with slightly ruffled pride.

Hiroko rolled his eyes (which the teacher didn't see of course), "Yea, can I sit here?" everybody turned around or stood up a little to see where the new kid was going to sit. The desks were set up in pairs of twos, and the desk that adjoined to the one that Hiroko was pointing to...was Tohru's.

Tohru was blushing furiously; she could feel the pressure of everyone's eyes burning into her. She was so embarrassed! And she was embarrassed that she was showing that she was embarrassed, especially to the long awaited new student!

"Hey!" Kyo called out angrily jumping up from his seat, "I thought you said that girls couldn't sit with boys!"

"Yes, but he's the new student, and doesn't know his way around here. I'm sure that Tohru would be willing to help him out at least for a week" the teacher replied glancing at Tohru with a look that made her feel obligated to.

"Hmph!" Kyo slumped angrily into his chair. Because of that teachers' stupid rule, he was stuck sitting with his arch rival. Damn rat he muttered (isn't he always?) For once he wished that Tohru's friends were here, they definitely would have put up a big argument, but Uo-Chan and Hana-Chan were in a different homeroom. All he could do was stare at the back of Tohru's head with Hirokos' right next to hers.

"Hey" Hiroko whispered to the flustered Tohru, "What are we doing?" he said motioning with his eyes towards the board.

"Oh! We're working on a new project for the semester, its mandatory" Tohru replied, determined to make up for her being rude and blushing so much when he was near her. Not that she wasn't blushing now, but now she wasn't so stricken by shock and she could string along a few words now and form a sentence.

Hiroko listened to the teacher for a few seconds and rolled his eyes, "Bor-r-ring. We did a project like this before, in London, it was so lame" he started to inspect his fingernails while ignoring the teacher, "All you had to do was make up some numbers and then get some names of big companies and whatever from the internet" he then gave a devious grin, "Yeah, we did it the night before, we got an A"

Tohru looked amazed. She could never pull off anything like that, it took her about two weeks to plan, and she needed another two weeks to actually do the project, with help of course.

"So what was up with you?" Hiroko asked Tohru. When she creased her forehead in confusion, she gave an impatient sigh, "Back there, with that picture?"

"Wha-? Oh…" she looked down at her desk biting her lip. "Oh that…was a picture of my mom"

"So what? It's just a picture, why'd you flip out when I gave it to you?" Hiroko said not impressed by her answer.

"She…she died" Tohru bit her lip harder. She could handle it when her friends talked about her mother because Tohru knew that they respected her mom, but this stranger casually asking about her dead mom opened a new well of sadness.

"Oh…sorry" Hiroko, not looking very sorry. "My mom died too, I've gotten over it" and he shrugged to show his indifference.

"Really?" Tohru was wondering how he could be okay with something so tragic.

"Yeah, she's in a better place now I guess, besides" he looked off in space, "We're all going to die anyway, my mom just beat me too it"

Tohru pitied him. How could someone be so cold? After he told here that, Tohru was determined to become friends with Hiroko and to make him less unfeeling. No matter what it takes Tohru thought determinedly.

"So um…" Tohru was unsure of what they could talk about, "What's your favorite subject?"

"Hmm…" he contemplated her question, "History, people killing each other and for what?" he gave a heartless chuckle "For their money, their land, for their girls" he shook his head "They were fools, that's why I like history, it's so funny" and he was silent.

Tohru was a little freaked out by his gruesome answer; "Um…well" she tried to think of something else that they could talk about. "When's your birthday?" it seemed a harmless question.

"January 29, 1994" he said nonchantly.

"Really! We're both the year of the Dog! And you were born on the exact day!" (The Year of the Dog starts January 29) Tohru whispered excitedly.

"Really?" he said, "Then I guess I have to get to know you better" and Hiroko leaned over his desk, his face close to Tohru's, with that same devious grin that he showed during the fight with Black Haru.

"Eh…" Tohru blushed and tried to lean back without being too obvious. But everybody was watching them anyway, (except for the teacher, he didn't have a clue) whispering to each other about Tohru and the hew kid.

But Hiroko just ignored their staring and leaned in a little closer "Don't you think?" he then looked behind and looked to the left, and smirked when he saw Kyo looking furious.

"Hiroko! I know you're new here, and you have many questions but please ask Miss Honda after class" with another ahem Mr.Yoshioka turned back to the board. Hiroko rolled his eyes again and turned around in his seat, with both elbows and the desk and resting his head on his fists.

Through out their first period, Hiroko stayed slumped in his desk, ignoring the teacher and looking bored. Much to Kyo's relief, Hiroko left Tohru alone.

But did you think that Yuki hadn't seen all of this? He witnessed this, silently fuming inside. Unlike that stupid cat, he wasn't going to let this newcomer know that he had penetrated his calm exterior.

XXXXXXXX

Sorry it's so short and it takes me so long to update. So I just wanted to let you know-DEAL WITH IT!...sorry. That was the evil me, yea…I hate when she does that. Anyway, I'm not sure if I should make Yuki use his powers as class president for evil (Mwhaahaahaa…STOP THAT EVIL ME!). Tempting…but we wouldn't want to taint or precious prince do we? And it's fun making the new kid mess with Kyo! I can guarantee at least two fights between them in the next three chappies, tops. Sweet little Tohru, always blushing, sometimes I just want to smack her and tell her to STOP BEING EMBARRASSED!...sorry, the evil me got out again. So I'm going to go now before I KILL YOU ALL! Stop it! I meant to say before evil me comes out again…Sigh Toodles folks!